CASSIA

"Stop embarrassing yourself, Cassia."

Adrian Crowe's fingers tightened around my wrist, grinding the silver resonance band against the bone. Around us, conversation faded just enough for me to hear someone laugh.

"She followed him all the way to his own medal ceremony."

"Did you expect anything else?"

I looked from his hand to the medal pinned to his immaculate uniform. Behind him, the academy's central screen displayed his name beneath footage of the Varen Campaign.

"Let go."

His mouth tightened. "I told you not to come near me tonight."

"And I'm telling you to let go."

He released me with a shove, then wiped his palm down the side of his uniform.

The laughter spread.

My chest constricted with a hurt so immediate that an apology rose in my throat. With it came memories of waiting outside training halls and polishing this silver band every night, hoping Adrian would notice how carefully I treated the symbol of our match.

I swallowed the apology.

The memories belonged to Cassia Veyne, twenty-one years old and apparently willing to endure anything for this man.

I had endured fourteen years of an apocalypse before dying in the snow. Now I had her body, her memories, and a bruised wrist.

Begging wasn't on my list of priorities.

Adrian watched me rub the reddening skin.

"Don't start crying."

"I wasn't planning to."

I turned toward the aisle, but he stepped in front of me as an administrator approached the podium.

"Not yet."

Apparently, he hadn't finished.

"Tonight, we honor the officers whose courage at Varen secured another victory for the Empire," the administrator announced. "In recognition of their service, each decorated officer has been granted one petition to the Crown."

Adrian had returned from the front three days ago. Judging by the way he straightened, he already knew exactly what he wanted.

When his name was called, he walked to the podium.

"By the merit granted me for Varen, I formally petition the Central Registry to dissolve my assigned match with Cassia Veyne."

Every nearby face turned toward me.

Cassia's memories supplied the rules. Sentinels were powerful enough to fight the Empire's monsters, but their abilities gradually damaged their minds. Guides helped stabilize them, and the Central Registry tested compatibility and assigned partners.

Adrian and I had eleven percent resonance compatibility, barely above the legal minimum.

My own Guide ability rating was four percent.

Different measurements, though nobody here seemed interested in the distinction when calling me useless.

"This assignment has provided no meaningful support to my service," Adrian continued. "I ask to be released from it."

The administrator looked at me.

"Cassia Veyne, do you wish to contest this petition?"

A sick, desperate ache moved through my chest.

For three years, the girl whose life I had inherited had treated this match as proof that she might someday matter. Even now, her fingers wanted to reach for the band.

I made them stay still.

"No. I agree to the dissolution."

The administrator blinked, while Adrian's expression sharpened.

"Cassia, this is a formal proceeding."

"I heard him."

"If you're trying to make a scene--"

"I'm agreeing with you, Adrian. Try to enjoy it."

Someone behind me choked on a laugh.

I turned back to the administrator. "How do I claim the severance compensation?"

Adrian stepped away from the podium. "You're asking for money? Here?"

"You chose the venue."

Color rose above his collar, but I was already sliding the silver band over my hand. It caught against the swelling on my wrist before coming free.

Three years of polishing had kept it spotless.

I placed it beside the administrator's terminal.

"The academy office will process your claim once the dissolution is approved," he said.

"Then please include that in the record."

I headed for the doors before Adrian could find another reason to stop me.

A glass shattered behind me.

I turned as a decorated officer collapsed beside his table, dragging the cloth down with him. Plates struck the marble, and black mist seeped between the fingers pressed against his mouth.

"Blight!"

The crowd recoiled, chairs scraping as students fought to get away. A senior Guide pushed through them and dropped beside the fallen officer, pale light gathering beneath her palm.

"Give me room!"

She pressed her hand to his temple. The Blight retreated from her light, then folded beneath his jaw and surged back toward his face.

His shoulders convulsed.

I stopped moving.

I knew that pattern.

In my old world, I had watched darkness gather like that before it fed. Here, they had given it another name and dressed the people fighting it in expensive uniforms.

The officer clawed at his throat.

The Guide forced more light into him, but dark veins continued climbing above his collar. She was clearing one patch while the Blight reclaimed another.

His lips were turning blue.

A familiar hunger tightened beneath my ribs.

I crossed the space between us.

"Cassia, get back," Adrian snapped. "You can't help him."

I stepped around a broken glass and crouched opposite the Guide.

"Keep his head still."

She looked up, sweat shining along her hairline. "You're not qualified to touch him."

The officer convulsed again, nearly striking his skull against the floor. She caught him with both hands, and I reached toward the darkness pulsing at his throat.

I knew what I wanted to do.

Whether this body could survive it was another question.

Two fingers touched the blackened skin beneath his jaw.

Cold shot up my arm, locking my elbow, and pressure gathered behind my eyes. For a moment, nothing happened.

Then a strand of Blight lifted from his skin and sank beneath my fingertips.

The hunger inside me seized it.

My shoulders jerked forward as more followed, too fast, dragging a sharp breath from my lungs. I shifted my hand, reducing the contact until the flow thinned.

Slowly.

I watched the veins at his throat instead of listening to the part of me that wanted everything.

The Blight tasted of burned metal and winter air. Each ribbon vanished into me, leaving warmth behind it, while the officer's fingers loosened against his collar.

He dragged in a breath.

"His pulse," the Guide whispered.

I kept my hand steady until the last dark line faded, then pulled away.

The hunger resisted.

I closed my fist against my knee and waited until I trusted myself to move.

Under the Guide's hands, the officer's breathing settled. His eyes opened, confused but clear, and he whispered something about the broken glass.

I tried to stand.

My knees buckled, forcing me to catch the edge of the table. For several seconds, I concentrated on keeping my feet beneath me.

This body had limits.

"What did you do?" the Guide asked.

Before I could answer, a tone sounded overhead.

The Varen footage vanished from the central screen.

White letters filled the wall above the podium.

RESONANCE EVENT DETECTED -- GRAND HALL.

SUBJECT: GUIDE CASSIA VEYNE.

STANDING RATING: 4% -- INVALIDATED.

The hall's murmur died. The administrator rose halfway out of his seat.

I stared at my name, enormous above the heads of people who had laughed at it minutes earlier.

RECALIBRATING.

The screen held there, cursor pulsing, for three long heartbeats -- and I felt something cold settle in my stomach, because in my old world, being measured had never once led anywhere good.

Beside me, the senior Guide stood without taking her eyes off the display.

The cursor stopped.

PROVISIONAL RECLASSIFICATION: B-RANK.

ANOMALY FLAGGED. FULL ASSESSMENT REQUIRED.

The room drew one collective breath.

From four percent to B-rank was not an upgrade; it was a resurrection.

Somewhere behind me a girl said, faintly, "That's impossible. The Registry doesn't make errors--"

Nobody answered her.

I looked down at my hand. It was still trembling, the knuckles pale from gripping the table, but the officer on the floor was breathing because I had touched him.

B-rank.

Not the highest, according to Cassia's memories. There were Guides in this room ranked above it.

But the lowest rating in academy history no longer belonged to me.

I let myself look at the words again.

For the first time since waking, I wanted to know what else this body could become.

The screen wasn't finished.

PENDING DISSOLUTION: CROWE / VEYNE -- APPROVED.

MANDATORY RE-MATCH PROTOCOL INITIATED.

Adrian went very still.

Whatever he had expected his petition to buy him, it clearly wasn't this.

His gaze moved from the screen to me, then toward the silver band lying beside the administrator's terminal.

"Cassia--"

Another tone cut across his voice.

CANDIDATE LOCATED.

RESONANCE COMPATIBILITY: 91%.

Someone's chair scraped sharply against the floor.

The administrator stood fully now, one hand braced on the podium as he read the result. Around him, students leaned into the aisle for a clearer view, as though distance might explain the number.

Eleven percent had been enough to make Cassia spend three years trying to earn a place beside Adrian.

Ninety-one filled the wall.

I searched beneath it for a name.

CANDIDATE IDENTITY: SEALED.

AUTHORIZED ACCESS REQUIRED.

The administrator touched his terminal. A red denial flashed beneath his fingers.

He tried again.

ACCESS DENIED.

My grip tightened on the table.

Somewhere in the Empire was a Sentinel with ninety-one percent compatibility with me.

And the academy wasn't allowed to know his name.